Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Mama's boy

The mother of Muhammed Faisal Saksak, the 21-year-old suicide bomber who carried out Monday's attack in Eilat, said she was aware of her son's plan to blow himself up and that she had wished him "good luck."

Dozens of Palestinians, chanting slogans against Israel and the US, converged on the family's home to "congratulate" them on the success of the attack.

...

Ruwaidah, 43, said she last saw her son on Friday morning, when he walked out of his home in the Slateen neighborhood near Bet Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

"As he walked out of the house, he asked me to wish him good luck," she said. "I wished him good luck and I knew of his decision to become a martyr. Although I was aware of his intention, I did not know exactly when he was planning to carry out a martyrdom attack."

According to the mother, another one of her sons, Naim, phoned Muhammed on his cellular phone over the weekend to inquire about his whereabouts. "When Muhammed answered, he told Naim: 'Pray for me all of you and don't try to call me again. I'm now in Jabalya refugee camp.' After that we tried to call him many times, but his phone was out of service."

The mother of nine said she was proud of her son for carrying out the suicide attack. "I pray to Allah that Muhammed will be accepted as a shaheed [martyr]," she said shortly after hearing about the Eilat bombing. "I hope that his martyrdom will deliver a message to the Fatah and Hamas fighters to stop the fighting and direct their weapons against the one and only enemy - Israel."

Ruwaidah said she was prepared to "sacrifice" all her sons "for the sake of the Aqsa Mosque and Palestine." She added: "I hope that our politicians will stop fighting so that the blood of the martyrs will not be shed in vain."

The suicide bomber's older brother, Naim, 26, said he too was proud of his brother, whom he described as a member of Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades. "I knew that he was going out to launch a martyrdom attack and I wished for him to become a martyr," he said. "The family is very proud of what Muhammed did. He always wanted to be a martyr and was among those who went out to fight against the Israeli soldiers each time they invaded the Gaza Strip."

Muhammed's wife, Nadia, said she shared the family's sense of "pride" for what her husband did. "When I heard that he was martyred, I felt very proud of him," she said. "Why shouldn't I feel so when I know that he died for the sake of Palestine and Al-Aqsa? It's much better than dying in the internal fighting between Fatah and Hamas."

The Palestinian who blew himself up in the Israeli resort of Eilat on Monday was unemployed, despondent over the death of his baby daughter and driven to avenge his best friend's killing by Israeli troops, relatives said.

Dozens of neighbors celebrated outside 20-year-old Mohammed Siksik's house after the fiery attack that killed him and three other people, waving his photo and praising him as a martyr. Inside, his mother greeted mourners with a smile.

''He told me: 'Meeting God is better for me than this whole world,''' said Rowayda Siksik, wearing a white veil.

She said her son told her only that he was going to carry out an operation inside Israel. ''He said, 'Goodbye, I am going, mother. Forgive me.' I told him, 'God be with you.'''

Siksik never found steady work, getting by with occasional jobs with his father, installing tiles. ''You can't find work in this place,'' his mother said. Her son lost his 7-month-old daughter to a nerve disease, she said.

Sitting on the floor of her bare house, the mother said her son's best friend, Nader Amrein, was killed six months ago in an Israeli military operation in northern Gaza. Amrein was a member of Fatah, the movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

As the brother of a top Islamic Jihad official, Siksik made an easy target for recruitment for the suicide attack.

Originally sympathetic to the more secular Fatah, Siksik's life changed after the death of his friend. ''He became religious about six months ago,'' his mother said. ''He joined Islamic Jihad.''

Outside the house, Islamic Jihad and Fatah members argued heatedly over who would sponsor Siksik's funeral. The two groups claimed to have jointly planned the attack.

'Moderate' 'Palestinian President' Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen is the leader of Fatah. Yet the United States, Israel and the European Union continue to pretend that Abu Mazen is a 'man of peace' and a 'moderate' who is somehow 'better' than Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas. Once again, I have to ask why?

The Palestinian who blew himself up in the Israeli resort of Eilat on Monday was unemployed, despondent over the death of his baby daughter and driven to avenge his best friend's killing by Israeli troops, relatives said.

So rather then, maybe, work and try to put his life back together, as rational people would do, he decided to go kill.

Yup, makes sense to me. I think it's time to introduce birth control chemicals into the palys' water supply; it's justified, as a form of gun control.

Francisco Gil-White believes that the US pretends that Fatah is moderate, because they really wish for the destruction of Israel.

I will take a stab at this. While there are no doubt elements in the US Government who would rejoice at the destruction of Israel, mostly in the State Department and CIA, I do not think that is in general the case. I think there are two things leading to the charade of moderation:

First, is the elements in the government who rather than seeking Israel's destruction, have got themselves so convinced that the only way out this mess is a Palestinian state, they are willing to bend the facts to fit their paradigm. Many well meaning, but foolish people within the State Department and White House, cannot fathom that the Palestinians simply want to finish the job Hitler started. These process over results people have boxed themselves into such thinking and if they admit Abu Mazen is not a man of peace, the whole way they have been thinking (that there are peace lovers on both sides) will be shattered. That is why you see so many who could never admit the folly of Oslo and its progeny. That does not mean they seek Israel's destruction, but are rather are simply too foolish to realize that is exactly what they are encouraging. This label applies to the White House and Congress to a degree, and some in the State Department.

The second and more troubling aspect is that moderate Mazen is a creation, not of a US design to destroy Israel, but an Arik Sharon gambit gone horribly wrong.

If you recall, during the early stages of Bush's presidency (and even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11), Bush refused to call Arafat a terrorist or even an obstacle to peace. Then came Karine A, in which Arafat lied, Bush believed him only to be later proven that Arafat was behind it. Sharon finally had Bush in his camp regarding Arafat's malfeasance. However, by that time in Bush's world, because of teh Sharon storyline, Arafat -- not Fatah, or the PA or Palestinian society were the problem -- just Arafat.

So in June 2002, Bush officially ostracizes Arafat, calling for new Palestinian leadership not compromised by terror. But because the world demanded that there be a peace process, Bush knew that he had to point to some hope on the horizon, lest he be labelled as someone who is writing off the Palestinians altogether (something Sharon should have urged him to do). Bush then said to Sharon, ok Sharon, Arafat is bad, but there must be someone you can work with. Sharon said Abu Mazen, we can work with Abu Mazen. Thus the moderate Abbas was born.

Now, it is possible that Bush would not have taken a stronger more accurate suggestion that it was palestinian society that was the problem and not one man, but that effort should have been made. Instead, Sharon was backed into the fictional Abu Mazen the moderate pragmatic Arafat in a suit.

Does that mean Bush wants to destroy Israel? Not at all, but it means that Bush thought it was politically important that there be the image that there is hope on the horizon and that the Palestinians were in fact lead by new moderate leadership so that he could pursue his broader agenda.

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 12 to 33 years and eight grandchildren. Three of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com